Decorated Cannons of the Hetmanate Period as Figurative and Symbolic Monuments of the Ukrainian Baroque

Abstract

The relevance of the study lies in the need for a comprehensive understanding of Cossack artillery of the 17th and 18th centuries not only as a category of military weapons, but also as a significant phenomenon of Ukrainian material and symbolic culture of the Baroque period. In the context of contemporary Ukrainian realities, marked by the destruction, displacement, and marginalisation of cultural heritage, this issue acquires particular importance from the perspective of klironomy as a discipline concerned with the preservation of cultural memory. The study problem is defined by the insufficient scholarly attention paid to the figurative, symbolic, and ideological dimensions of decorated Cossack cannons. Previous studies have predominantly focused on technological, military-historical, or descriptive aspects, leaving the internal semantic structure of cannon decoration and its role in the visual legitimation of power largely unexplored. The novelty of the study consists in the interdisciplinary interpretation of decorated cannons of the Hetmanate period as figurative and symbolic monuments of Ukrainian Baroque culture. The article introduces a holistic analytical model that integrates art-historical, iconographic, semiotic, and klironomical approaches, allowing cannon decoration to be conceptualised as a coherent symbolic system rather than a set of isolated ornamental motifs. The subject of the study is the system of figurative, symbolic, and compositional meanings embodied in the artistic decoration of Cossack cannons of the 17th and 18th centuries. The object of the study comprises bronze decorated cannons commissioned by Ukrainian hetmans and members of the Cossack senior officers and preserved in museum collections of Eastern Europe. The study aims to conduct an interdisciplinary analysis of these artefacts as figurative and symbolic monuments of the Baroque era. The study employs a wide range of methods, including historical and chronological analysis, art-historical examination of Baroque stylistics, iconographic and semiotic interpretation of decorative motifs, as well as comparative analysis and attribution. The theoretical foundation of the study is based on the works of V. Modzalevskyi, P. Zholtovskyi, D. Stepovyk, A. Makarov, V. Paliienko, O. Malchenko, A. Buychik and other scholars who have contributed to the study of Ukrainian Baroque art, artistic metalwork, and Cossack material culture. The study demonstrates that the decoration of cannons constituted an integral symbolic system that transformed weapons into a “cultivated universe” of the Baroque worldview. Three key groups of decorative elements are identified: phytomorphic motifs (including acanthus, grapevine, rose, and the symbol of the “heart” as an expression of Ukrainian cordocentrism), zoomorphic images (the lion and the unicorn as embodiments of strength and divine protection, the nightingale as a herald of victory), and epigraphic elements (titular inscriptions recording social hierarchy and status). The conclusions of the study confirm that the compositional organisation of cannon decoration was based on the principles of vertical dynamism and triadic unity, corresponding both to the technological structure of the cannon barrel and to the Christian symbolism of the Trinity. It is established that decorated cannons functioned as instruments of political legitimation and as visual confirmations of the status of the Cossack senior officers as bearers of state authority, faith, and Baroque cultural identity.